52 Bicycles

Met Josh Porter at BahCamp. Fascinating conversation talking about Tufte, Nielsen’s new book, usability more generally, and our observations on software entrepreneurship.  Checked out his blog, which is many colors of insightful. In particular were his pair of articles detailing seven reasons each ”Why Web Apps Fail:”
The first seven:

Focus on Social instead of personal
They solve too many problems - or try […]

Quick qualifier: while I helped in a small part, Shimon Rura, Devon Biondi (and her great crew at Monster Labs) and others made Barcamp a success through their extraordinary effort and commitment.
So Shimon posted his observations, and I would like to trackback my lessons learned from my perspective as a dogface:

When possible, listen to Mike Walsh’s experience. The guy […]

Pierre exemplifies the modern technology business consultant, and he held a presentation on  Ingredients for Web 2.0 Success at BarCamp Boston that everyone should see. Any resemblance to Alexis Ohanian is of course completely coincidental.

I presented on “Bootstrapping your Software Startup” yesterday at Barcamp Boston. The presentation had the germs of a good thing, though it was a last-minute effort on my part Thank goodness I got to see Rod Begbie’s ”How to give better presentations” (his notes here) in the session immediately before - as a result I may have […]

Panelists (Ryan Sarver was the moderator)

Nick Baim Matrix Partners  -describes the recruiting site in his portfolio as “like a dating site, but between job seekers and recruiters.” That’s kinda creepy.
David Beisel, Masthead Venture Partners
Mike Sheehan Skyhook Wireless (their product is Loki) (bio)
Eric Garritsen - Global Seed Capital (angel perspective)
Steve huffman, reddit - y combinator company

Investment opportunities in […]

Speaker - Sudha Jamthe (bio) (blog)

Start with idea
Go to VC (feel chicken-egg of can’t build without money, and can’t get money without elements below)
Ask for valuation

Market size
What is the team
Who is the customer
Prototype / does this raelly work

Next she went to her customer (she went to comdex to find her customers for coola)
Next get advisors

She […]

Hey readers (are there three of you now?), popping in to remind you that BarCamp Boston is this weekend, and that it is going to be a great time! It’s in Maynard, MA, which is about 30 minute drive out of town. Come for part of a day, all day, both days. I really want […]

I’d like to call on my readers (both of you) to consider sponsoring the Barcamp that is being held this June 3-4 in Maynard, MA. The sponsorships let us keep this event, a convocation of bright technologists (most of whom probably don’t use the word “convocation” in everyday discourse) and entrepreneurs (most of whom have […]

Organizational meeting of Barcamp Boston was enlightening. I came in thinking conference, but grungy. Kinda cool, but fitting into a pre-existing mold.
The idea in the room was much different. They had a much more fluid, self-organizing event in mind, where the main organizational concern was keeping everyone sheltered, powered (a surprisingly big logistical concern) and fed, […]